Saturday, October 25, 2008

Just a little update on the Hammer Pants contest! If you look a few entries back you'll see the ridiculous video of me dancing to hammertime which was my entry to the comp over at Queen Gilda dot com.

I didn't win but the lovely Gilda is making me some pants anyway, along with another 4 people that entered but didn't win first prize! That shows just how awesome she is!! I'm so excited!!!!! Hammer pants will be MINE!!!!

Friday, October 24, 2008

I'm also obsessed with these two girls flickr photo streams. They both live in Helsinki and have the most amazing sense of style. Their use of coats and layering is making me crave colder weather. I love the way they use colour. They also make me want to:

a) move to Helsinki, perhaps even defect and become Finnish;

b) shop at H & M. They both seem to have a lot of stunning items purchased from there;

I'm obsessed with etsy in general at the moment. I suggest everyone go check it out! You can find some fabulous items hand crafted with love.Also, I think someone should buy me this little set. Go on! You know you want to! I would love you forever and ever and ever.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Bangkok has a pretty big Indian population, especially around Nana where I live. Which means there is a lot of delicious Indian food near me! YUM! I also find Indian people very friendly and interesting. I'd love to go there one day.

But I have had a problem with some weird Indian guys here. It happened the first time in MBK (a huge shopping centre). I was just coming out of the donut store with snacks for myself and my friends who were in the adjacent store when this Indian in a turban (nothing quite as fabulous as the gentleman in the photo) approached me.

"Excuse me madam" he said "On the outside you look healthy and happy but on the inside you are not well."I was too shocked to say anything and he kept going. "You are going to get very sick and die soon. Your heart is also not happy. Would you like to go take a seat and talk about your life."

At this point I managed to splutter out "No thank you. I'm with my friends" and went to walk away. But the guy blocks me and says "Excuse me but we are talking about your life not you friends". I got really mad and told him that I didn't feel comfortable talking about my life with a complete stranger and push passed him back to my friends. I got quite upset by it and rally creeped out. I calmed down by the next day and forgot about it.

Since that day, this has happened to me half a dozen times. Always young Indian men wearing turbans, always telling me I'm sad on the inside. I just shrug it off now. But as it turns out, similar things have happened to all my foreign friends here. It happened again to me today.

Does anyone know what these guys are about? They are seriously creepy!!! I'd like to know why they say this sort of stuff to people.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Mr A and I decided we needed a little jaunt in the country to get away from the hustle and bustle of BKK. After some umming and ahhing we decided on Kanchanaburi, about 2 hours North West of Bangkok. So we hired a car and took to the (scary) roads of Bangkok armed with printouts from google maps and pretzels.

We have both been to Kanchanaburi several times before, just for day trips to see the river Khwae and the tiger temple. It's very very gorgeous. But we had never really explored the place before. So we decided to take in the waterfalls, caves and beautiful scenery.

Our first stop was Erawan National Park and it's stunning 7 tiered waterfall. This place is super popular with tourist but it's also a favourite picnic spot with Thais too. This time of year is the best because it's the end of the rainy season and the falls are fit to bursting and at their most stunning. There are also less tourists (peak tourist season is November to March). It costs 200 baht to get in for tourists which will actually get you into any part of the national park for a day so it's not a bad deal! We trekked right up to the seventh tier which took about an hour. It's pretty slippery and the climb is a little tough so I would recommend wearing sturdy shoes. It was totally worth it (and made me feel better about missing the gym that day. Tehehehe). Nature at it's very best!

Here's a fun little guy. He's licking a wrapper. There were tonnes of moneys around the place, all sneaking off with tid bits from people's pic-a-nic baskets. Yogi bear has nothing on the sneaky Thai monkey. While we were there, some monkeys were fighting and one of them fell into the pool right near a Thai girl. Hilarious! He had to swim back and shimmy back up the tree. Feeling sorry for himself I'm sure.

One of the best things about the falls is you can swim there! The water is clear, fresh and clean. But....there are fishys. I hate fish. They are slimy and scary and EW. And these fish nip you. It doesn't hurt but it feels gross. They are trying to eat the dead skin off your feet. I hear they do this in Singapore as part of a pedicure. EW EW EW! I can think of nothing worse. I do not want fish eating me! So......I armed myself with Pokey: The Fish Pokin' stick.

It was taking me ages to get in the water. Here I am mincing around and squealing like a wuss "NOOOOO the fish will get me".

Next thing I know, I'm in the water because some Thai guy push me in! How rude! But I'm glad he did. The water was lovely and cool, just what we needed after the sweaty hike up the falls. The waterfall was great too. Standing under it was like getting a free massage!

Lovely! We were pretty whipped after the hike and the swim so decided to head back into town and find somewhere to stay. After a fruitless search through overpriced shitehouse bungalows and terrible toilets, we stumbled upon Apple's. The rooms were simple but comfy and ultra clean(and cheap! $10AUD for both of us!). The owner, Noi, was lovely and helpful. You also MUST eat in their restaurant. Then food is authentic Thai. Very delicious and very cheap! It's also right on the bar strip which means it's very easy to go out on the town. But even with Black Eye Peas thumping out of a pub across the road, Apple's is still amazingly quiet and serene. It has a really nice garden area where you can sit and think. But bring the mozzie repellent because there are quite a few of them around.

After a good sleep in and one delicious apple pancake courtesy of the delightful Noi, we decided to go to Lawa cave. There are heaps of lovely caves around Kanchanaburi and Lawa is supposed to be the best. We managed to get horribly lost as the signs stopped being in English and we went about 15 minutes past the cave. But the scenery was beautiful so it wasn't a bad thing.

We found our way back to the turn off and decipher the Thai sign to work out which way we should go. The cave was pretty amazing. It was still living which is unusual in Thailand. The usually get carved and turned into underground temples. And there were BATS!

I LOVE bats! I think they are adorable. I have a weird thing with animals in Thailand. I see a squirrel and I go nuts. I see bats and get super excited. I think monkeys are pretty cool. But I'm so blahsay when it comes to Elephants. I think it's because I see them every day on my street and they get soooo annoying sometimes because they block the street you need to go on so you can't get through. I've almost gone careening into an elephant butt before when I was running to get out of the rain. I've have friends come to stay and they squeal when they see one. I'm just like "Oh yeah!"

But anywho, Lawa cave was really nice. It was surprising warm. I always expect caves to be cool and wet. There were some really lovely rock formations.

After the cave, we had some lunch by the River Khwae and then head back to Bangkok. I would recommend it to anyone visit Thailand. The country side is beautiful, the sights are breathtaking and the people are friendly. What more can you ask for?

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

I *heart* Katoey (known in the West as Lady Boys). They are an integral part of Bangkok's Gay and Transsexual community. They are also known as Lady Boys. They can be very very convincing and beautiful. They are always look FIERCE! There are some grotty ones but they are mostly in the really horrible seedy bars, strip joints and ping pong bars (which I have actually been to -perhaps a post on that later tehehehe).

Quite a few Katheoy are sex workers or hostesses in bars. This has lead to a lot of Farang (foreign guys being wary about picking up Thai girls (a lot of Kathoey still have their manly bits - not always desirable for the heterosexual male). They can also be very aggressive and annoying with their advances. But so can the regular ol' Thai prostitutes. Apparently they are responsible for of a lot of the bag snatching and pick pocketing crime here too, taking advantage of the gross, rich farang that congregate here like weeds, slipping their wallets out of their pockets when they are sloppy drunk.

But like anything, these generalisations do not apply to everyone. This is why I think Katoey are awesome. They don't want to hit on me. They just want to chat about girly things. They usually speak awesome English so are great to chat to. They can give you a really interesting insight into gay culture within Bangkok.

It's quite refreshing to be in country where people are so accepting of GLBT people. Generally anyway. Kathoey are not quite accepted as just being run of the the mill gay. Fathers are apparently very disappointed if their sons become Kathoey. Which is pretty much as good as it gets for some guys in Australia. I find it strange sometimes that Thais are so accepting of transgender individuals but can be unbelievably racist (I will write something on this soon). I think it may be because most Thais are Buddhist and are therefor very accepting of other people's life choices.

If you get a chance, go see a good Kathoey cabaret show. The costumes are amazing, the dancing is fabulous and the girls are stunning. It's a very unique cultural experience!